Australian media is reporting that Broken Hill, NSW is starting to become an area of concern because of flash flooding and heavy rain in the forecast. Not as bad as other parts of the country so far, and hopefully it won't get to that point there.

Still, the show does have a rather awkward and odd tendency for disasters and semi-disasters to happen between filming and first airing of a Race.

Australian media is reporting that Broken Hill, NSW is starting to become an area of concern because of flash flooding and heavy rain in the forecast. Not as bad as other parts of the country so far, and hopefully it won't get to that point there.

Still, the show does have a rather awkward and odd tendency for disasters and semi-disasters to happen between filming and first airing of a Race.

The poor denizens of Oz. A year and a half ago, they were suffering through one of the worse droughts they've ever had and extensive wildfires. That had a severe impact on world wheat prices for several years; and the price of food items containing wheat only came back down in the last six months or so.

This time it could impact manufactured or processed goods because much of Asia relies on coal from Oz, and the flooding has had a severe impact on transportation infrastructure.

Just be ready for some worldwide commodities and manufactured goods prices to head to the stratosphere very quickly as a result.

The Gulf States, including Dubai, Oman, Qatar and Bahrain are east of Saudi Arabia. The western edge of Asia runs from Russia through the Caucasus Mountains region, through Turkey at the Bosporus, west to include Cyprus (you learn something new every day), then down through Syria, Lebanon, Israel and the Sinai Peninsula. It then goes south to Yemen.

The divisions between Asia and Europe occur at the Ural Mountains, Ural River and Caspian Sea in the east, the Caucasus Mountains and the Black Sea with its outlets, Bosporus and Dardanelles in the south. Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Russia and Turkey are considered part of both Europe and Asia. Armenia and Cyprus are entirely in Western Asia, but are sociopolitically European countries. The division between Asia and Africa is usually considered to be the Suez Canal, placing the Sinai peninsula in Asia, and therefore Egypt may be included as an Asian state.

I have to correct to you ( i am a geo major in the waiting) there is no Europe! it is one whole super continent with Asia.

And I have been an amateur geographer longer than you have been alive, so I can tell you that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. There are at least these different models of how many continents there are:

The seven-continent model is usually taught in China and most English-speaking countries. The six-continent combined-Eurasia model is preferred by the geographic community, the former states of the USSR (including Russia), and Japan. The six-continent combined-America model is taught in Latin America, and some parts of Europe, including Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain. This model may be taught to include only the five inhabited continents (excluding Antarctica).

So, perhaps your geography professors are from the "geographic community" and will not acknowledge that there are many alternate viewpoints, some based on plate techtonics and others of political geography. I say pick the one that appeals to you, as I did in my original note.

There is a difference between physical geography and social geography. I never understood why the Eurasia people always leave out India.....since it was its own continent once. Shouldn't it be Indoeurasia or maybe Eurasiaindo......oh well.

Soon (in earth time, not human time) the east African rift will split off about 20% of the continent......wonder what it will be called then?

The International Olympic Committee only recognizes 5 continents too.......the reason there are only 5 rings in the Olympic Flag.

This is a fascinating discussion! I was taught there were 7 continents, Europe and Asia being separate, but I see there is more than one model. I never gave much thought to the 5 rings in the Olympic flag either. Thanks for educating me.

According to the plate tectonic theorists, there was originally only one supercontinent, Pangaea, and at some future point in a few billion years plate movement will re-create it.The biggest debate has usually been whether Australia should or shouldn't be counted as a continent....especially with all those islands lying between it and mainland Asia. My understanding is that the Olympic Rings 5 continents are North America, South America, Europe, Africa, Asia. That is how the rings were said to reflect the continents on a world map centered on the Greenwich Line (0 degrees). Australia was ignored or treated as part of Asia (take your pick.) -- And that is just one piece of trivia I picked up as a resident of an Olympic City between 1989 and 1996.

So guess what we will be seeing along with those paper airplanes in Palm Springs!!!

Quote

The new season of the seven-time Emmy-winning reality series kicks off in Palm Springs, Calif., where the teams must sort through hundreds of paper airplanes to find one of a handful that say "Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services," figure out it's a little-used acronym for Qantas Airways, and board one of two flights to Sydney.

The new season of the seven-time Emmy-winning reality series kicks off in Palm Springs, Calif., where the teams must sort through hundreds of paper airplanes to find one of a handful that say "Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services," figure out it's a little-used acronym for Qantas Airways, and board one of two flights to Sydney.

Other stops on the journey, filmed in November and December, include Japan and tiny Liechtenstein, a first-time destination, where racers had to measure the precise length of the country on mopeds.

And yes, that is the correct task in Liechtenstein. As a matter of fact, it is the ONLY task in Liechtenstein.

Logged

"I can't speak for production, but I really like that people see us when we're traveling around the world. If you're a fan of the show, ... you're going to be more excited because you want to see what happens." --Phil Keoghan

Now that I know where to look, it took me about 2 minutes to find information from back in November that suggested TAR 18 would be visiting Palm Springs. The hard part is knowing where to look before it gets revealed. It did take me a bit of time to confirm that the information pointed to the windmill site and not another location in the Palm Springs area.

Something I noticed while reading the profiles for the contestants on the official website. Many of them said they hoped to go to Brazil and Australia this season. 2 countries that actually made the cut. Furthermore, many of them said their favorite countries from their previous season was Thailand and India. Since India is on the route this season and Thailand is the Elimination Station, you think it's possible they asked their input for countries??

"I can't speak for production, but I really like that people see us when we're traveling around the world. If you're a fan of the show, ... you're going to be more excited because you want to see what happens." --Phil Keoghan